WISH will also expand its Weekend Daybreak to 10:00 a.m., starting January 3rd.

FIRST ON THE BLOG: By now, it should be no surprise to you to hear that WISH-TV 8 is losing CBS after 60 years and that once it goes Independent, WISH-TV 8 will have even more local news coverage while retaining all of its existing newscasts. While other people may not know about is that WISH-TV 8 is also expanding its news coverage on weekends. Here’s the details (with the scoop from Inside Indiana Business):

WISH-TV 8 will also expand its weekend editions of Daybreak to 10:00 a.m., starting Saturday January 3rd. Which means starting this date, 24-Hour News 8’s Daybreak will be on from 6:00-10:00 a.m. on weekend mornings, fully competing with WXIN 59’s weekend editions of the FOX 59 Morning News and also competing with long-time leader WTHR 13’s Eyewitness News Sunrise at 9:00 a.m. It’s also gonna compete with the Saturday edition of WRTV 6’s Good Morning Indiana at 9:00 a.m.

WISH-TV 8’s President and General Manager Les Vann:

“We’re excited to announce these additional hours of news along with a new schedule of popular programming that complements our award-winning news and delivers key audience demographics to our advertisers. We are in this to win and we’ve been given the support and investments to make it happen. They’re on-board (referring to the support from partners and advertisers) and ready to see us succeed.”

Here’s the full lineup on WISH-TV 8, along with the new syndicated programming, starting Thursday January 1st, 2015 and according to The Indianapolis Star, would last from January-September 2015:

“This programming strategically attracts a younger, more female demographic, in addition to loyal 24-Hours News 8 viewers. The schedule also provides WISH-TV the independence and flexibility to continue to enhance our commitment to local news and local programming.”

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WISH-8 Indianapolis is now in its final days as a major network affiliated station (ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC), and will soon join the list of a few other former major network affiliated stations with news operations still intact.

– KTVK-3 Phoenix – lost its ABC affiliation to KNXV-15 almost 20 years ago, and is independent to this day.
– KRON-4 San Francisco – lost its NBC affiliation to KNTV-11 in late 2001, and was independent from January 2002 until September 2006, when KRON joined My-Network-TV. Media General acquired KRON and other former Young Broadcasting stations last year… and is in the final stages of acquiring WISH/WNDY-23 and other soon-to-be former LIN Media Group stations.
– WJXT-4 Jacksonville – lost its CBS affiliation to WTEV-47 (now WJAX) in 2002, and is independent to this day.
– XETV-6 San Diego – lost its Fox affiliation to KSWB-69 in 2008, and XETV picked up CW affiliation.
– WCCB-18 Charlotte – lost its Fox affiliation to WJZY-46 last year, and WCCB picked up CW affiliation.

Other than WISH losing its CBS affiliation at the end of this year… WMGM-40 in Atlantic City, New Jersey is losing its NBC affiliation. It’s unclear if WMGM will still have news broadcast operation intact after January 1, 2015. Example that would come to mind: WJKS-17 Jacksonville (then WJWB, now WCWJ) shuttered its news operation upon losing ABC affiliation to WJXX-25 in late 1996… WCWJ going on to WB and CW affiliations.

This just in: It looks like Tribune is canceling plans to move The CW to WTTV-4 sub-channel. In what could be summed up as an 11th hour deal, it looks like Media General will be affiliating WISH-8 with The CW instead of going independent on January 1. WISH joining the likes of other news intensive Independent, CW, and MyTV stations, upon ending its nearly 6-decade union with CBS.